Web and sheet controlling means



c vs. CRAFTS WEB AND SHEET CONTROLLING MEANS Filed Aug. 1, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 la lll l l -llllluE TTORNEYS Miy 11,1937.

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Patented May 11, 1937 UNITED STATES WEB AND. SHEET CONTROLLING MEANS Curtis s. Crafts, Oak Park, 111.,

Goss Printing Press Company, Chicago,

corporation of Illinois Application August 1,

2 Claims.

The invention relates to rotary mechanisms for cutting sheets from webs, the sheets in many instances being forwarded to a folding mechanlsm. The invention relates more especially to novel and useful means for guiding the lead end.

of the web to the cutting locus of the rotary cutters and therefrom into means for guiding the sheets to the rotary folder or other mechanism.

Objects and be set forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities i and combinations pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention consists in the novel parts, constructions, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.

The accompanying drawings, referred to herein and constituting a part hereof, illustrate one embodiment of the invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

Of the drawings:-

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of the rotary cutters, a folding cylinder and the improved guiding means of the invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary plan looking downwagdly from just above the cutting mechanism; an

Figure 3 is a detached detail of a cutting blade,

adapted for use with the present invention.

The invention provides means for positively and accurately guiding the cut or lead end of .a

web or webs to, through and from the cutting locus or cutting plane of the rotary shear cutters. The invention further provides such means which operate to effect this uninterrupted orv complete positive and accurate guidance without gripping or positively engaging the webs or sheets. Especially in meeting the demands of exceedingly rapid work, such as modern newspaper printing, the sheet guiding means of the present invention attains and maintains accurate and certain guidance in that it positively and uninterruptedly guides the web end or ends to and through and onward beyond the cutting line of the rotary shears, and to the rotary folder, without gripping or positively engaging the web or sheets. A further object of the invention is to provide a very simple, certain and "inexpensive mechanism for effecting the functions described. By one feature of the invention two opposed series of thin, spaced-apart guide advantages of the invention will' assignor to The Ill., a

1935, Serial No. 34,189

members, such as, for example, tensioned wires extend past the cutting locus, the two coacting shear blades being recessed at each wire to permit the blades to pass the guides while cutting, whereby the guidance is continuous past the cutting locus without interfering with the shear action. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth hereinafter, or will be apparent from practicing the invention; and it will be understood that thegeneral statement of the invention and the following detailed description are illustrative and exemplary but are not restrictive of the invention.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated by way of example in .the accompanying drawings, a web sheet, or associated webs or sheets W are shown coming from any suitable source of supply, such as a rotary perfecting printing press. The web or webs usually coming from nipping and forwarding rollers of a longitudinal folder or other web supplying mech anism, are forwarded by means of the driven propeller rollers I and 2, driven at web speed, and are directed into a guideway consisting of two opposed series of tightly-stretched wires 3 and t extending from a point closely adjacent to the propeller rollers I and 2 through the cutting locus and to a point closely adjacent to the folding cylinder.

The rotary cutter mechanisms are shown conventionally in Fig. 1 as having two pairs of coopcrating shearing blades 5, 6 and 1, 8, which cut the successive sheets or groups of associated sheets from the web or webs at the instant the Web lead is taken by the folding cylinder in the usual manner. The folding cylinder II is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1, with folding blades l2 and grippers I4 and I5, although other forms of sheet taking and folding means may be employed.

In the embodied form of sheet cutting mechanism, the cylinder 21 carries the two helical shear blades 5 and 'l which are mounted in seats on the cylinder and are held in position by suitable means including clamping bolts 9, and adjusting or positioning means, such as screw bolts 10 may be provided for the blades on each cylinder. Thus each blade may be very accurately positioned on its carrier. The blades 6 and 8 on-cylinder 26 are similarly mounted, blade 6 being shown in Fig. 2 and blade 8 and a part of cylinder 26 being omitted.

The guiding wires 3 and 4 at their upper ends are fastened to tensioning drums or reels l6 and. l'|, each of which is rotatably mounted and probelow the cutting cylinder to a point closely above 7 the folding cylinder.

The shear blades 5, 6 and 1, 8 have recesses 28 formed therein to receive the wires 3 and 6 as the blades sweep to the cutting locus and.

recede therefrom. By this mechanism a continuous guideway is maintained, from the entrance of the web into the upper guideway, to and through the cutting plane of the shears, and terminating only at the exit from the lower guideway where the sheets are taken by the folding cylinder. There are no grippers and their conveying chains, nor any devices for engaging the web or sheets, all of which mechanisms are extensive, cumbrous and costly and are operated successfully only at low speeds. The mecha-' nism is exceedingly simple and cooperates with the shear blades in a simple and reliable manner, and the mechanism in no wise interferes with any speed of which the entire machine is capable of. The recesses in the shear blades are-very small, little larger than the gauge of the guide wires used, and the small uncut parts of the web at these recesses are easily pulled apart by the action of the folding mechanism.

For controlling the sheets or webs between the cutting cylinders and folding cylinder, an additional pair of propeller rollers 23 and 24 are provided, roller 23' being relieved for a portion of its circumference and timed to release the sheet after the gripping of its leading end by the grippers l4 on the folding cylinders. 24 are also grooved to accommodatewire 3 and guide-b'ar 22.

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Rollers 23 and A tucker bar 30 is provided adjacent to the folding cylinder for holding the leading end of the sheet against the folding cylinder, at the instant of gripping, and for this purpose bar 30 is rotatably mounted on roller 3| and is driven n time with the rotation of the folding cylinder so that it has approximately the position shown at the instant of gripping.

Rollers 3i and 23 are preferably a sheet length in effective circumference and are driven at a peripheral speed equal to the speed of the sheet or web W, and the point of gripping is preferably spaced slightly less than a sheet length from the cutting locus.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific mechanisms shown and described but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of thev accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the in-- vention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

cluding in combination rotary cutters, a cylinder having sheet taking devices, a rotatable bar for pressing the sheet head against said cylinder at the instant of sheet taking, and sheet guiding means including a guide member extending from the cutting locus beyond said sheet taking locus, said bar being recessed to pass'said guide member during the taking of the sheet. 

